


what else but ambition

by random_chick



Category: The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 13:47:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_chick/pseuds/random_chick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You can smile when your heart is breaking because you are a woman, and a courtier, and a Howard."</p>
            </blockquote>





	what else but ambition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iphianassa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iphianassa/gifts).



Anne had been at Hever all of, well, it didn’t really matter how long. It was too long by half and she was tired of it. Their damned grandmother was getting on her nerves, as per usual, but what really bothered her was seeing Mary so happy with little Catherine. It galled Anne to see Mary have something that she herself should have had with the man _she_ loved. It galled her to see the evidence of Mary’s love for the king, when she herself had nothing.

And that was exactly what Anne had, too, she decided as she saw her sister every day, watching Mary coo and fuss over a baby who wasn’t even old enough to focus properly. She, Anne Boleyn, had nothing. Nothing that truly counted, anyway. She had no husband of the proper variety, she had no child of the proper variety (not that her sister did, either, if you were to be technical about the matter), she had no wealth or prominence or standing beyond that which came from being a Boleyn. Not that any of it was truly hers, but it was what she had nonetheless.

She had very nearly lost that, too, upon her banishment after the Henry Percy incident.

That was what it was now, too, an incident. Before she’d known the truth, it had broken her heart to the core. But she’d healed and she’d learned the truth and she’d learned a lesson -- above all else, she had to _survive_. There was no point in life if you didn’t survive.

She would take whatever life threw at her, because she was a Boleyn girl, a Howard girl, and her family was incapable of _not_ taking a situation and turning it to their advantage. But even she would admit that it was not always easy to see the advantage in a situation. That was where she and Mary differed, though. Mary would happily give up, let others solve the matter and find the advantage and just roll along with it while offering meek and ineffectual protest. Not Anne. No, not Anne.

Anne would take her family’s input -- because as much as she was stubborn and willful and fierce, she wasn’t _stupid_. They knew how to play the game at court better than she did. She was learning, and she was _good_ , but there was always someone better and she happened to share a bloodline with most of them. Or that was how it seemed to her.

She wasn’t angry, though. Well, alright, yes. Sometimes she was. But in her more level-headed moments, she realized that the masters in her family were the people to _learn_ from. If she played the game well enough, she would get what she wanted. Yes, it was more complicated than that, but that was what it boiled down to.

And what she wanted was to be better than Mary, to have what Mary had. Not a child. No, not a child -- not like Mary had, anyway. Anne would bear no bastards, be no man’s mistress, no man’s plaything to be used and enjoyed and then tossed aside when interest waned. She had learned her mistakes from Henry Percy -- she would never let her heart lead her again. Listening to her heart was what had very nearly ruined her.

The heart was a useful tool, though, Anne would reluctantly admit. It had its moments. Love was valuable in the right circumstances, and if it didn't lean to ruin, and if you were smart enough about it. But none of those moments would help Anne achieve what she wanted.

And what she wanted, beyond the ability to play the game at court, was to play the game and _win_.

Only, if she looked at the game on a more personal level, she was playing against Mary. This was nothing new -- Howard and Boleyn girls were always and would always be pitted against one another for one reason or another. But the outcome of this game? Was something Mary already had.

The king’s favor.

And Anne wanted that, because she wanted to win and because she wanted to best Mary at something. As proud as she was of her sister for helping elevate the family’s status, she still wanted to be _better_ than Mary.

It was only a matter of time, though, before Mary’s star fell in the king’s eyes. Henry was a fickle man. Well, not fickle, precisely, but his attentions could and would drift if enough wasn’t done to _keep_ them. Mary was lucky in that she had birthed the king a healthy child, even if it _was_ a girl. Because giving evidence of the king’s virility was never a bad thing. A boy would have made him happier, but a girl was good enough. For now, anyway.

Except unlike her sister, Anne would never settle for just good enough. Mary was happy enough at heart to have given the king a girl because Mary was silly enough to love the man, but Anne would give him a boy.

And that was her vow, her promise to herself. If she caught the king’s attention -- and she would, it was just a matter of time, even as she positioned herself to best keep Mary in the king’s eye. Because the king’s eye _would_ wander someday and when it did, Anne would be there.

It would be simple enough, really. The right words, the right challenge -- that wasn’t a _true_ challenge to Henry, because he did not appreciate true challenge to his rule or his masculinity, but a challenge to a viewpoint, if said properly-phrased and wittily enough -- and she would have Henry eating out of her hand. And once she had that, it was a matter of time before she had it all.

Because she would give him a boy, oh yes, but not until she had what Mary could never dream of because it was so very beyond her simple desires.

Anne would give Henry a boy, but not until he gave her the crown.


End file.
